Mark & Mandy

We were referred to a behavior specialist for Lola – a JRT with behavior issues, No you say. She has been showing signs of aggression to other dogs at the Dog Spot Daycare. She is very possessive of the trainers there and would prefer that she was the only dog to get pets and attention.

We were referred to Laurie Buffington who, as Ben from the Dog Spot says, deals with problems much larger thank Lola’s. This morning we drove out to Laurie’s (a 45 minute trek) farm – on the way there, Lola was putting her head out the window, enjoying the fresh air and snuggling with her mom (a.k.a most gigantic pushover of the century). I was hoping Lola would show some of her behaviors to Laurie and not just act like the angel she is most of the time. Lola listened and was ready to make me proud.

We got out of the car and Lola was tugging like no tomorrow on the leash – she clearly knew there was something super fun inside the barn. Once inside Laurie came – I asked Lola to sit, she ignored me. Laurie told me to do it again, she ignored me again. After three tries she obeyed.

Laurie put us in some chairs and started asking lots of questions – each answer we gave she made a face and wrote something about us being the worst parents ever down. (During the questions, Laurie was evaluating to see how long until Lola would lay down) Lola was on the leash in front of us and she kept bouncing on me, sitting in front of me, she was even howling at me to please let her off the leash. Finally after about 15 minutes she laid down.

Laurie was kind enough to point out how Lola was only trying to manipulate me. Lola has a great build (we think) but one thing Laurie could tell by lola’s build is that she has a high level of testosterone (shown by her muscular legs) which means that she will often show male signs (like mounting me as a sign of aggression).

The next test was to bring in a bigger dog that has lola’s same temperament but is actually well behaved and listens to her trainer. Mabel was part pitbull and part border collie. Mabel love the ball and was hunting her ball down until Lola found it and decided to show Mabel how tough she was by holding the ball hostage. Its called resource guarding and lola’s got it bad.

For the rest of the meeting we hooked lola to a tether on the wall. Once she laid down, she would be able to get off. We continued talking about what we needed to work on while Lola howled and cried and jumped and chewed on the leash. 20 minutes passed and she laid down.

I asked if we should come to training as well now, and Laurie said not yet, you have some work to do first. So now we are home and going to start the “Learn to Earn” program where we set lots of boundaries.

Here’s to setting boundaries!

I am now obsessed with my football pool. I suck at picking teams so this year I enlisted the help of my trusty friend the internet (who I am not talking to today). I base my picks on 4 guys I have found who also pick winners with confidence – I use the four sets to create my own, so really I am putting my own twist on it.

Last week Denver barely won against Kansas City – they looked horrible. I actually voted against them this week – I picked New England with 7 confidence points. I felt pretty conflicted about it, but I stuck by my pick. Denver won.

Mark is a die hard jets lover – he will pick them every week, because he wants so badly for them to not suck – and they don’t this year. They pulled out an upset win against buffalo – and Mark was rewarded for not being a fair weather fan.

I am in 6th place this week… a sad week in the football pool.

We decided a couple months ago that we needed a new car that would carry more stuff – after many days of shoving our golf bags and carts in our back seats we have decided to look for a larger vehicle. We quickly began the debate over who should give up their car and get the new car… I voted for Mark to give up his Gold (old man) audi – and Mark voted for the Black Pony to be given up. (BOO).

Just a bit of background – I purchased my Cabrio GLX in 2001, brand spakin’ new and Loaded. When we went to get the car there was dealing to be done – Mark told me to keep my mouth shut, but just when Mark started his hard sell and wanted us to walk out I burst out “I have to have it” – he pointed towards the door and I sulked out. We went back a week later – I didn’t go in until the deal was sealed – but I got the car.

I picked the color (black) and the tan leather interior. If you can believe I have wanted this car for many years of my life and I got it – we leased it (against mark’s better judgement). When we decided to move to Colorado I was just about up with my lease so we were going to turn it back in and become a 1 car family, we extended the lease for 3 months to get us through until we moved. Two days before I was to turn the vehicle in, I broke down and went in and purchased the vehicle. At this point I have paid the most possible for this vehicle. I love this car.

Here’s a picture of the pony trucking Ron, David, Mark and I up to the Boulder Creek to Tube – see how much she can hold!

We decided that we wanted to get an Acura MDX (We want to be just like Scott and Julie!) Mark did a ton of research (imagine that) and we decided to go looking at dealers.

Mark has a couple car buying stratagies…
1. never buy a new car
2. never buy from the first dealer
3. never trade your car in, sell it on your own.

All three rules he would break! They offered us a great trade in for the pony (she has really really low miles – 25,000 for a 2001). The sales woman asked Mark what it would take to get him to buy the car today – and he said, “he would be crazy to buy from the first dealer” (I was hiding from embarrasment). She said, well what would it take. Mark worked through his papers and pulled out a lowball estimate – and after a few back and forths… she took it.

We had to come back monday to do the final paperwork, so we drove away in the pony. I burst into tears – I did really want the new car, but I was soo sad that we were giving up the pony. She was my first car that I bought with my own money – she is a symbol of me making it on my own. Mark didn’t buy it – the pony was our best trade in option.

Monday we went in and picked up our new stallion… a 2006 MDX, black with leather interior. She is fully loaded (because that’s what was left) a nav system, XM Radio (come on KQED move to XM), On Star (which we won’t every probably use) and a DVD player (for Josh and Amy on the way to the ski mountain). She’s fabulous…

Here’s how I look in the new stallion…

We drove by the dealer a few times to see how the pony was doing, but she was no where to be found. She sold like hotcakes! I just hope her new parents love her as much as we did!

Last year, Mark and I vacation with Scott and Julie in Zihuatenjo, Mexico. It was an amazing vacation – but it was a bit too hot for the boys. This year we opted to stay closer to home (in the states) and we rented a posh house on Shadow Lake between Winter Park and Estes Park, Colorado. This meant we got to bring our dogs!

Scott and Julie did all of our grocery shopping – and because we were on vacation Julie let Scott put all types of yummy vacation food (licorice, chips, lucky charms, ice cream, breakfast danish… the list went on and on) in the cart!

We found Scott many mornings on the deck, wrapped up in his blankets with his laptop – but not working, just reading.

We lazed around, read lots of books (Congratulations to Julie for finishing her biography of John Adams!) and took naps. Everyday around 3:00 the walk police (Julie) would start hounding us to get our walk clothes on – anyone who knows julie knows that she hates hiking, what a mom does for her dog!

Sadly even well behaved baby dogs aren’t allowed in the National Park, only National Forest – so we had to search to find some trails that we could use. Our first day, we encountered a scary man in the woods (with no baby dog) – fortunately the walk police let us turn around.

Lola and Sumo had a blast – Lola was the leader and they would run back and forth about 20 yards off the trail and then bound back across – they definitely got their workout.

Scott, Lola and Sumo were the only brave souls to get in the frigid water. It was so cold, that instead of a swimming sign, it was a wading sign (no one in their right mind, except scott and the dogs) would swim without a wet suit. BRRR. Here is a picture of Lola retrieving her tennis ball ring.

I was hoping the lake was floatable, so I got us some floaters – they came in handy for reading/sunning – and dog playing. Lola and Sumo got along great (as always) – Sumo is a tough one and uses his body to push lola around. They played keep away with the chewy of the moment for hours, and hours, and hours.

We decided to travel home through Estes Park hoping to see a Moose – but all we saw was a bunch of elk. Dang!

We made it back to our house with time to head to dinner and see the Illusionist, which was pretty good. We had a fabulous time (as always) and can’t wait for next year!

This is a double shout out:
One to Josh – Happy Birthday!! Josh and Amy were in Ohio this weekend, but are on their way home to celebrate tonight.

Two to the broncos for pulling out a win in OT yesterday. With 1 minute left in the game I decided to get my bronco’s shirt on and my orange pom poms (which drove lola insane and quickly were put away) clearly it helped. I am in good position to win the football pool this week – if pittsburg wins, otherwise Chris will take the lead. Go Steelers!!